Viktor Dankl

Viktor Dankl (18 September 1854-8 January 1941) was a Generaloberst (Colonel General) of Austria-Hungary who fought in World War I.

Biography
Viktor Dankl was born on 18 September 1854 in Udine, Province of Venetia, Austrian Empire (present-day Italy). He was educated in German-language gymnasiums (schools) until moving to Lower Austria at the age of 14. From 1870 to 1874 he attended the Theresian Military Academy at Wiener-Neustadt. After graduating, he became a Second Lieutenant of the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Dragoon Regiment, and from 1905 to 1907 he headed the Austro-Hungarian 16th Infantry Brigade. In 1907 he was promoted to Field Marshal, and he commanded the Austro-Hungarian 14th Corps.

At the start of World War I, he took command of the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army and fought in Russian Poland and Galicia against the Russian Empire. In May 1915 he fought in the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive and was reassigned to fight Italy after their 23 May declaration of war on the Central Powers. From 1915 to 1916, he halted numerous Italian offensives on the Isonzo River, although his May-June 1916 Asiago-Trentino Offensive was contained by the Italians. After he suffered from poor health, he was forced to give up his command, and after the end of the Great War, he proposed a continued Austrian Empire instead of the Austrian First Republic and Nazi Germany. He rejected fascism, totalitarianism, and anti-Semitism until his death in 1941.